Movie Review: Star Wars – The Last Jedi

25Jan

(8/10) – My Rating

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Where “The Force Awakens” became pretty similar to “A New Hope” this one does the same with “The Empire Strikes Back.” Luckily, it wasn’t as parallel heavy as it’s predecessor, but there will still be many scene that feel familiar to the audience. Writer and director Rian Johnson took a few risks in the film, and I applaud him for trying to be different. However, a good chunk of the twists and turns were pretty underwhelming and somewhat confusing.

Fortunately, while the story had some missteps the acting and characters did not. Both Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher gave some of the best performances of their careers. Fan favorites Rey and Finn are still portrayed wonderfully by Daisy Ridley and John Boyega. The rest of the supporting cast does a great job too, but a lot of them went underutilized.

On the technical side of things the movie was just about flawless. It is easily the most beautiful “Star Wars” film to date. Some scenes even got my jaw to drop just by how stunning they were. John Williams also gave us a great score, combining the original music with brand new concepts.

Overall, the movie went for a darker tone and almost hit the mark. It missed ever so slightly. The first act of the film was pretty campy, and any of the dark moments were interrupted by a joke. The film was able to pull the darker tone around in the latter two acts though. So, I enjoyed it, but it certainly did not scratch the itch for more “Star Wars.”